The S.S. NPR; Sinking Ship or Raising the Tide of News?
NPR + The Daily Caller = More Shouting, Less Reasonable Debate.
By Amy Sommer | March 10, 2011
It sucks to be an employee of NPR of late. First, one half of one-third of the Federal government -- aka congress -- has voted to cut you off entirely. Then, the now former chief fundraiser, Ron Schiller, has been caught , on tape bad mouthing The Tea Party while talking to potential donors who he never vetted who ostensibly were related to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Dude, don't you know what NPR's stereotype is? I mean I know your job was to beg for bucks, but seriously, how could you be so money grubbing as to fall for this? Good thing you were on the way out the door -- sorry that you got a kick as a going away present but hey, sometimes honesty just doesn't pay.
As a result , NPR head Vivian no-relation-to-Ron Schiller resigned. Seems like the offices of NPR have more drama than "Grey's Anatomy"! As a huge fan of the network, I do hope that this ends the angst ridden drama which has resulted from smart, able people doing stupid things.
But.
..
On the good side...all of the controversy is amongst the management of NPR and does not involve any of the wait-we-need-more-than-90-seconds-to-tell-the-story reporting that draws the likes of me to NPR. Despite statistics to the contrary, NPR is always painted as a band of left wing elites armed with lattes and lap tops. But none of their reporters -- with the exception of Juan Williams, an opinion commentator whose ouster was handled badly thus forcing other heads to roll -- have been called to task for biased reporting.
Never-the-less, this latest dust up will only add to this stereotypes, no matter what surveys and facts may show. The controversy was manufactured by a James O'Keefe (of ACORN video fame) sting and promoted by The Daily Caller, a website co-founded by notable conservatives Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel.
By
nabbing Schiller this rather right publication has used to left to heighten its profile proving once again that the left and right need each other and feeding one of my big fears about our new media landscape; that if we actually evolve to a point where we're able to have reasonable, moderate discourse a lot of people will be joining Mr. Schiller, Ms. Schiller and far too many other Americans on the unemployment line.
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Comments to date: 2. Page 1 of 1. Average Rating:  Amy Sommer
Los Angeles | 4:48pm on Thursday, March 10th, 2011 | You're right: I revised. |
Cynthia
Oregon | 1:32pm on Thursday, March 10th, 2011 | The content of the article is fine, but the writing is terribly sloppy. I suggest that the author write her story - then print it out in 16pt type - correct with red pen - then carefully go through her stories to make all necessary changes. Finally, have someone else read it. As it is, the credibility is gone because the piece is riddled with typos, awkward sentence structure, and a smattering of wild commas. |
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